At Last—The Truth.

First they came after those who donated big to prop 8. Then they came after the ones who donated a hundred dollars or less. Now they’re coming after people who didn’t donate at all.

Is it principle or hate at the core of the boycotts? Comments I’ve heard have couched all kinds of behavior in the comfy blanket of victimhood. Everyone is excused from unconscionable behavior when they feel they’ve been wronged, right?

What if the target of the hate has done nothing? Does it matter? Or is the guise of victimhood just another excuse for the free exercise of blind fury?

Bill Marriott and his family own the Marriott Hotel chain. They have come under fire from gay activists recently, not because of something they’ve done, but because of their religious affiliation. What is their crime? Bill Marriott and his family are Mormon, and they refuse to state their unequivocal support for the gay marriage movement.

“… why go after Marriott? According to my friend Bob Witeck, who runs a consulting firm called Witeck-Combs that specializes in gay issues and advises Marriott, neither Bill Marriott nor members of his immediate family donated to the campaign on behalf of Prop 8. What’s more (and this is undisputed), Marriott as an employer has an exemplary record around diversity in general and LGBT employees in particular. “

“… it would appear that the Marriott Corp. is under fire only because the family belongs to the Mormon church. Bob Witeck says this is unfair. “Their policies and practices have been good for a long time,” he told me. “This notion of targeting people because of their faith is deeply troubling.”

“… silence or neutrality is unacceptable… Either you’re for us or against us…”

Certainly anyone who has a wallet is free to use it however he chooses, but consider the motivation here. Those proclaiming to be victims of hate are proving the case of the proponents of prop 8 who said that the gay marriage movement was about religious persecution as much as anything else.

“Just because a person is gay, I don’t assume they have AIDS, just because I’m Mormon, don’t assume I hate gays.”

Even reporters have been attacked. Steve Lopez, who interviewed Marjorie Christoffersen (Mormon target of the El Coyote Restaurant boycott), had this to say today on the virulent reaction his readers gave him:

…I’ve never been called a bigot so many times as I have since I wrote in my Sunday column about the boycott of El Coyote, the Los Angeles cantina whose Mormon manager donated $100 to Proposition 8, the successful November ballot initiative to ban gay marriage.

No doubt these hate-dripping commenters are among the same group who believe that prop 8 was all about hate. All the rainbow wavers with signs proclaiming peace and love, was all that a sham? a show? What about respect and diversity? What of tolerance and love? Who truly owns the hate?

“…I sat next to a powerful politician — Mayor Gavin Newsom — who ritually rejected violence but refused to decry these extraordinary threats to ordinary voters’ livelihoods. I also sat next to Joe Solmonese, head of the Human Rights Campaign, when a young Mormon in the audience asked him, “Why are you singling out my faith when so many other people supported Prop 8?” Did Joe, an amiable guy, take a moment to call his troops to back off from religious bigotry, to refocus on the larger problem — 7 million Californians disagree with his organization’s gay marriage civil rights dogma?

No. I sat silent, dumbfounded, next to Joe when he pointed at the young man and cried,

“We are going to go after your church every day for the next two years unless and until Prop 8 is overturned.”

My mouth dropped. This was Joe’s response just a few days after white powder was sent to LDS temples in Utah and California.”

Hate is hate, and it’s never justified. It’s clear that advocates of same-sex “marriage” present the idea as a step forward for tolerance and respect—but their actions present a different case, especially if you happen to be Mormon.

Please Teach Me—This provocative video response to the anti-Mormon religious intolerance was created by a first-year LDS college student.

Trampled by Tolerance

As I look at how the world has changed in the last week, I’ve been shocked. When I saw the kindergartners and first graders being taught about same sex marriage while our leaders told us it was impossible, I was shocked. When the Los Angeles Temple in Westwood was targeted, threatened with arson, I was shocked and alarmed. When 44 of California’s legislators came out against the will of Californians, when even the Governor of our state came out against the voice of the people, I was shocked. But when the L.A. Times started providing names of our neighbors who supported the marriage amendment to vigilante mobs, I moved beyond shocked to she-bear rage. Has the world gone mad? Where is these people’s sense of decency and honor?

This is everything the proponents of proposition 8 warned would happen…freedom of speech, freedom of religion, parental rights…..all things dear to the heart of democracy and freedom in this country are being set aside for the doctrine of tolerance, which at it’s heart is the epitome of intolerance. The voice of the people is not being heard, it’s being trampled.

Meridian Magazine today has articulated a thought that has been percolating in my own head for some time.

“One of the most potent arguments against same-sex marriage is that it tramples religious freedom. A group of distinguished legal scholars recently published a book called Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty, Emerging Conflicts . While they fall on both sides of the issue concerning the desirability of same-sex marriage for our culture, they unanimously agree on one point—that a conflict is brewing for religious freedom, which includes freedom of speech.Harvard Law professor Mary Ann Glendon wrote in 2004, during the same-sex marriage debate in Massachusetts, ”the experience in other countries reveals that once these arrangements become law, there will be no live-and-let-live policy for those who differ. Gay-marriage proponents use the language of openness, tolerance, and diversity, yet one foreseeable effect of their success will be to usher in an era of intolerance and discrimination…The ax will fall most heavily on religious persons and groups that don’t go along.”

Religious groups have legitimate concerns that they will be gagged regarding the importance of traditional marriage and family, if same-sex marriage becomes a civil right. Yet, same-sex advocates know it doesn’t take the force of law alone to silence opposition. You can harangue and intimidate people into silence. You can threaten their jobs and target their livelihood—even if they have been at their job for 25 years.”

This is what’s happening before our eyes. There is ample reason to be alarmed. If our government will not stand up for our rights, if our voice by the polls is not respected, if our newspapers are tools of the opposition’s mobs, where do we go to be represented? 52% of the people are being disenfranchised by a small but powerful minority whose hue and cry is all about their “rights” while they trample everyone else’s.

The whole system of checks and balances is to provide a way for voices to be heard peacefully. Without that process to respect and hear the people, what do we have left? Revolt, anarchy and chaos. Let’s pray that the system works the way it was designed and that disaster can be avoided. Are we still part of the United States? Land of the free? What kind of message are they sending?

Whether you like it or not. Whether you vote for us or not. Whether you elect leaders to represent you or not. The message is, it doesn’t matter.

Now today we hear about the Marriott Hotel Chain. Rumors abounded today that the Marriott chain of hotels had possibly given money to proposition 8. In the face of an impending boycott, Mr. Marriott released this statement:

As many of you may know I’m a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some might conclude given my family’s membership in the Mormon Church that our company supported the recent ballot initiative to ban same sex marriage in California. This is simply untrue. Marriott International is a public company headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and is not controlled by any one individual or family. Neither I, nor the company, contributed to the campaign to pass Proposition 8.

AND…..do you think they were satisfied? No. They’re boycotting him anyway! Not because he donated, no, but because he’s Mormon. See the ful text of the statement and the reaction here:

now while this story about the Mariott Hotel chain is getting absolutely no press, I find it interesting that we’ve gone from a thousand dollar infraction, to a hundred dollar infraction to a zero dollar infraction and the reality seems to be, they’re being boycotted because they’re Mormons. Nothing more. There’s nothing these people could do to appease short of renounce their faith.